Time to get ready for the holidays

Well, here we are just a little over three weeks away from Thanksgiving and Hanukkah and less than two months until Christmas and Kwanzaa. I have a feeling you’ll be hearing a lot about upcoming bazaars, festivals and holiday events over the next few weeks.

I’m sure we’ll all be scurrying around like crazy for the next several weeks as we prepare for scrumptious, elaborate dinners and family get-togethers.

New Year’s is also just around the corner and we’ll all be thinking about the resolutions we’ll make before too long.

Every year, we each make one or more promises to do something good, or stop doing something bad, for at least the next 365 days.

Usually, it’s more self-centered — how many times have you promised yourself that you’d give up sweets, lose weight or join a gym? I know I have promised myself each of those many times.

This year, I’m going to make a promise to be kinder to and more understanding of those around me, especially family and friends. Sometimes it’s just too easy to jump quickly to a conclusion and react accordingly. That almost never makes the situation better.

So, this next year I’m going to try to really listen to what someone is trying to tell me, and then I’m going to stop and think before I react — we never really know what’s going on deep inside the other person.

Imagine the wonderful relationships we could foster by the end of 2014 if we all do the same.

Have a great week.

ARE YOU A BELL RINGER, a member of a group of bell ringers, or do you know any bell ringers? Mary Lyon Church at 17 Upper St. in Buckland is hoping to find bell ringers who will participate in its Holiday Festival of Music on Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. in the church.

Light refreshments will be served at the event, and although it is free and open to the public, donations will be accepted and will go into a church fund to restore its steeple.

For more information or if you are a bell ringer and are interested, please call Helen Scott at 413-625-2679.

SHELBURNE FALLS AREA WOMEN’S CLUB will hear from local teacher and art historian Polly Anderson on Nov. 13 at about 7:30 p.m. in the Shelburne-Buckland Community Center on Main Street. Polly will give an overview of the local schools and her teaching career with slides.

As a historian, Polly’s interviews with local seniors are being video recorded to create a permanent record of the town’s oral history.

FRIENDS OF ROBERT STRONG WOODWARD will host Deborah Wheeler at the Buckland Public Library on Upper Street on Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. The program will be on artist George Gardner Symons. There is no admission and light refreshments will be served.

George Gardner Symons came to Charlemont around 1908. He painted the Deerfield River, “An Opalescent River,” and was awarded the Carnegie Prize at the National Academy of Design in 1909.

At the beginning of his career, Woodward sought the advice of Symons.

OUR NEIGHBOR WILLIAM COLI, who is owner of Charlemont’s Blue Heron Farm and is a specialist for UMass Extension, will be the featured speaker at Pioneer Valley Institute’s annual meeting on Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. in the Sloan Theater at Greenfield Community College. He will talk about farming in the valley at the turn of the 20th century, and then turn his attention to the changes after World War II. He will also discuss recent changes in farming and the environmental movement.

The annual meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. and the talk will follow. The program is free and open to the public.

BONJOUR! DID YOU KNOW THAT members of the Greenfield High School French Club will be travelling to Quebec in February to immerse themselves in a French language experience?

Well, they are, and they need your help to defray the cost of the trip. So, they will be holding a spaghetti supper at the (Greenfield) Moose Lodge on School Street on Nov. 16 at 6 p.m. It’s a win-win situation — our local students get your support and you get a night out and a delicious supper without the cleanup.

Tickets are $6 per person and will only be available through Friday, so please contact GHS French Club adviser Tamara Grogan at tamgro1@gpsk12.org immediately. No tickets will be sold at the door.

Merci!

FIRST PARISH OF NORTHFIELD will present its Music in the Meetinghouse Series with The Woman Songwriter Collective on Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. at the church on the corner of Parker and Main streets.

The collective is a unique collaboration of women musicians, singers and songwriters from all around western Massachusetts. They have most recently headlined at the Iron Horse in Northampton, Club Passim in Cambridge, and in Montreal, Canada, and have played extensively throughout New England.

THE ANNUAL TURKEY RAFFLE to support the Frontier Regional School football program, sponsored by Frontier Football Parents Association, will be held Nov. 23 at 6 p.m. at The Polish American Citizen’s Club, 46 S. Main St. in South Deerfield. Prizes will include gift certificates from local businesses, bottles of cheer, crafts and seasonal items, turkey dinners and more.

SHELBURNE FALLS FARMERS MARKET will hold its Autumn Market on Nov. 23 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Buckland Shelburne Elementary School on Water and Main streets. There will be plenty of produce, food, crafters and live music. Sounds like fun!

UNITED CHURCH OF BERNARDSTON on Church Street in Bernardston will be holding its Holiday Bazaar on Nov. 23 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. There will be handmade crafts, food, a mystery gift tree, can raffle and much more.

For more information, call 413-648-9306.

To contact Anita Fritz, a staff reporter at The Recorder, send an email to: franklincountyneighbors@gmail.com or call 413-772-0261, ext. 280. You can also reach Anita on Facebook at Anita’s Neighbors. Information to be included in Neighbors may also be sent to: neighbors@recorder.com up to noon two days before you want it to run.